Man Gets 25 Years to Life for Stomping Aunt, 80, to Death

VAN NUYS —  A San Fernando man who stomped his 80-year-old aunt to death, ordering her to “leave my world,” was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in state prison.

Robert Paul Runnion, a heavily tattooed 38-year-old with a history of mental problems, showed little reaction to the sentence by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Candace J. Beason.

Last month, a jury found Runnion guilty of first-degree murder in the Oct. 21, 1993, stomping death of his aunt, Marietta Donnelly, in the San Fernando home they shared.

Runnion had claimed he was insane at the time.

Runnion’s trial featured a chilling statement he gave police just two hours after killing Donnelly, a frail, nearly blind former nurse who had taken care of him for most of his life.

In the statement, Runnion told officers he knew he was killing his aunt, and would do it again. He admitted previous attempts on her life, saying he stared at her and played loud music, trying to provoke her into a heart attack.

“She wouldn’t go down,” Runnion said, so he knocked her to the floor and bounced on her chest with his knees until she was dead.

He told the psychiatrists he thought she was a witch who molested children and was sending him messages by leaving the newspaper open.